Many companies provide computer network access to their customers such as by providing them access to an Internet web hosting server. Frequently, the customers are required to enter a unique user identification (user ID, username) and an appropriate password in order to obtain access to the customer's account data using the web hosting server. Customers who have many accounts may need to remember many different username/password pairs or may instead reuse username/password pairs with multiple companies. Customer's may forget their username/password information and may become frustrated during multiple login attempts over a long period of time. Additionally, there have been many instances in which large numbers of passwords have been compromised in single-factor systems. Even two-factor systems have been spoofed in the past. If one or more of a username/password credential of a user is compromised, it may be some time before the user learns of the compromised credential. If such credential is used for multiple accounts at servers, then it may take significant time to remediate the problem of a compromised credential.
Single-factor, single-channel authentication systems often use a known secret, the password, as a something you know authentication factor delivered over the primary network communication channel. However, such systems suffer from the deficiency that they collectively cause users to waste significant time because of username/password problems above. Accordingly, there are several disadvantages of currently available systems and methods for user authentication including single factor username/password authentication schemes that collectively waste significant amounts of time.
Among many needs in the user authentication field, there is a need for an expedited login process that is relatively fast and still provides a reasonable level of security and a reasonable method for mitigating compromised login in formation.